Active Member

Sorry, but really if they are irreplaceable why haven't you got a backup copy, what happens when the disk dies as they do from time to time?

I presume the new mobo is not the same model as the old one, this means XP's low-level chipset drivers can't initialise the board and hence XP can't boot. In theory you could re-install and overwrite the current Windows tree while at the same time preserving your files, in practice I personally have never tried it.

For complete safety, in the absence of any backup, I'd get a new disk, install on to that and then copy the files you need off the old one. This of course presumes you have a full XP install CD and not one of the crass 'recovery CDs' one gets with new machines these days.

If you've a CD/DVD burner and some DOS-based software you may be able to save the files to optical media.

Active Member

If you really need to resurect a dead installation, this is how you do it:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;237556&Product=win2000
You need to use the recovery console section, this article describes Windows 2000 but the process is the same for XP. I would try copying in the standard HAL file, this usually works then once you've backed your files of it's best to rebuild.

Active Member

I had exactly the same problem when I changed motherboards. Turned out after re-formatting and re-installing didn't work that they had released a new BIOS. Downloaded and flashed the BIOS, system worked a treat. Only problem was that I had lost all my data. Oh well.